California Court of Appeal

In a commitment proceeding under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA), a petition for writ of mandate and prohibition is denied, but without prejudice to renewing the challenge to the SVPA commitment petition when the post-Ronje evaluation process is completed, where: 1) an SVPA commitment petition may be challenged before the probable cause hearing by a nonstatutory pleading authorized by People v. Superior Court (Ghilotti) 27 Cal.4th 888 (2002); 2) the trial court did not err by denying the petitioner's plea in abatement, because the post-Ronje evaluation process had not been completed; and 3) an SVPA commitment petition is subject to dismissal if the post-Ronje evaluations do not produce the requisite concurrence of evaluators under Welfare and Institutions Code section 6601.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/28/2012
• Published 03/28/2012

Judges

• Fybel

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Denise Gragg, Elizabeth Molfetta